15-year old dog screaming randomly - Have you got experience of this?

My Mum has a 15-year old dog (poodle and bichon frise mix). He has slowed down recently but he is in fairly good condition. He is deaf though and suffering from cataract.

Last week, he screamed randomly, as if he was in pain, a few times. Initially, it happened when he was on a walk and we thought he had hurt his legs but we checked and there was nothing and he was not limping.

Nothing has happened for the past few days but he screamed again twice today.

Has anybody got any experience of this and what the cause might be? Could some internal issue (tumour?) cause him sudden and occasional pain?

We had the same thing recently with our 15 year oldie. She suddenly went a bit crazy as if something was hurting her or bothering her. Not sure but she seemed to be in some kind of panic or scared about something very acute. We took her to the vet just in case, who checked her anal glands etc... She does have a large lump so it could have been that but it remains a bit of a mystery.

If it always happens on walks, it could be something with his feet or legs?

It's pretty unlikely to be syringomyelia.Spinal cord impingement willusually present with neurological deficitsDid the vet check for back pain?It could be an osteoarthritis flare up in which case the medication will help. Did he check the anal glands?

Thanks, Sunshine. I am no expert but the vet check was really cursory.

He took his temperature anally so I assume he would have spotted anything wrong with his anal glands then...?

I am not convinced he checked for back pain specifically. He really seemed to focus on his arthritis, which is a bit of an easy diagnosis considering our dog's age. The dog has been fine this afternoon though. Fingers crossed that the injection and the medicine relieve the pain.

I am not sure he did a rectal exam. He certainly did not mention the dog's anal glands.

However, he (the dog, not the vet!) does not drag his bottom on the floor. He bites and licks his front legs and paws but he has lots of warts and they bother him. He his wiping his face a lot on the sofa and armchairs but he has always done this to an extent.

Anyway, he has not yelped since we visited the vet, which is good.

Thanks a lot for your contributions. I will try and post a picture later so that you can see how lovely a dog he is.

We had this with our dog, it turned out to be tumours that had started to bleed internally. Besides the yelping in pain she would become very lethargic due to the bleeding. It happened to another dog I knew as well. Both were elderly dogs.

Our vet had seen it before and made an educated guess and confirmed it via x-ray. It was too advanced for us to do anything but palliative care. We kept her comfortable and as long as she was eating and enjoying life we treasured our time.

It is tough with old dogs and just heartbreaking. I hope for the best for your mum's dog.

It could be a trapped nerve - something my poodles suffered with once they were over 10 y/o when I was younger. I understand it's a common issue in older poodles. We relieved it by massaging the area (it was their necks) when they were in pain & treating with an anti inflammatory. Your vet should really be looking to rule out less serious causes (like a trapped nerve) before moving on to thinking about more serious issues that could be causing your poor pooch pain. Hope its fixed soon & something minor xx

The pain relief prescribed by the vet last week had no effect and our dog went downhill. He did not eat nor drink on Sunday, and was walking around the house avoiding us if we tried to stroke him. On Monday, he did not move from the sofa. He also had a sore eye.

We took him to a different vet this time. We had to carry him to the car.

We had already made our mind up when we went to the vet. We never had a proper diagnosis about what caused his pains. The vet did check his anal glands this time, and also conducted a gentle examination: we would have hated for him to suffer a painful examination before being put to sleep. For once, he was not even trembling much whilst being examined.

The vet suggested that the pains might have been caused by tumours bursting...

I think he was dying. It was heartbreaking to see him as he was but it was even more so to have him put to sleep. Thankfully for my Mum, my sister and I were with her to take him to the vet, and he fell asleep in my Mum's arms.